1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk drive with a disk cartridge to accomodate a disk (i.e., an information recording/reproducing medium) so as to protect a recording surface of the disk from contamination sources such as dust and fingerprints.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the density of information stored on a disk increases to allow more information to be stored on the disk, recording and reproducing information efficiency of the disk are greatly affected by dust, scratches, or fingerprints on the disk. Thus, a disk cartridge is generally used to protect the disk.
A conventional disk cartridge has an aperture so that a spindle motor which rotates the disk and an optical pickup which records information to or reads information from a recording surface of the disk can access the disk. Additionally, the disk cartridge has a shutter that opens and closes the aperture when necessary. Furthermore, the disk cartridge has a latch that locks the shutter so that the shutter does not open the aperture due to an external impact when the aperture is closed.
A disk drive that records/reproduces information to/from the disk protected by a conventional disk cartridge includes a tray on which the disk cartridge is mounted and an opening/closing member to open and close an aperture of the conventional disk cartridge. The opening/closing member opens and closes the aperture in connection with a loading/unloading operation. A slot is formed in one side of the disk cartridge so that the opening/closing member may access the latch. Noise may be produced when the opening/closing member comes into contact with either ends of the slot during a loading/unloading operation of the tray. Since both ends of the slot are generally sharp, the opening/closing member may be damaged due to the repetitive contact with the ends of the slot or both ends of the slot may be damaged.
In addition, the opening/closing member has to release a latch to open the aperture when the disk cartridge is loaded and to operate the latch to lock the shutter so that the shutter does not open after the aperture is closed when the disk cartridge is unloaded. If the shutter is not locked firmly, the aperture may open while transporting the disk cartridge, thereby contaminating the recording surface of the disk by foreign substances, e.g., dust and fingerprints. When the ends of the slot or the opening/closing member are damaged by repetitive contact, the shutter cannot be locked firmly.